In subterranean drilling and completion applications, a pipe or other conduit, referred to as a “string”, is lowered into a wellbore, i.e., a borehole, in an earth formation during or after drilling operations. In some applications, such as drilling, the string is lowered into a borehole by connecting numerous pipe segments. Various power and/or communication signals may be transmitted through the pipe segments via a “wired pipe” configuration. Such configurations include electrical, optical or other conductors extending along the length of selected pipe segments. The conductors are operably connected between pipe segments by a variety of coupling configurations.
Generally, in wired pipe configurations, one or more conductors such as wires or cables are run along the inside diameter of a typically steel pipe segment. The conductors are generally protected from drilling or production fluid and other objects (such as cementing darts) that are pumped downhole or flowing through the pipe segments. Mechanisms to protect the conductors include small diameter protective steel tubings. Although such tubings may serve to protect the conductors, they represent a potential obstacle to efficient fluid flow and components such as wireline measurement tools and cementing equipment that are disposed in the pipe segments.